In the Shade of Poison Trees
by Janeway1390
Summary: Gail wonders about all the fairytales she and Holly didn't get to have.


The sky looks dreadful. It's been overcast for days and with a lack of wind a sheen of smog has settled over the city. The last remnants of the day's sun shine off of it, casting everything in a disgusting orange glow.

God, she hopes this isn't the last thing she sees.

Gail's sprawled in the middle of the street, the bustle of the officers dimming as the seconds tick by. All she can hear is the ringing in her ears, all her eyes focus on his that burnt orange above her.

The bullet hit her abdomen. Or maybe her chest? Gail can't really tell, feeling a general burning in her torso. She tries to breathe, but there's something blocking the air to her lungs. Blood.

Her only thought is that she hopes someone tells Holly. Not that she wants to disrupt her life in San Francisco, but if she dies she knows Holly would want to know. She'd want Holly to know. She couldn't imagine being dead and Holly going about her life not knowing, it wouldn't seem real somehow. Not that she'd know because she'd be dead.

And Gail's pretty sure she's going to die.

Off in the distance she can hear a voice whisper, "Not exactly a fairytale."

/ / /

"This seat taken?"

Without even having to think Gail has a sarcastic remark to the pick-up line on her lips, but it dies when she sees the person's face. A woman a few years older than her gazes down at her expectantly, glasses perched on her nose and a UBC bag on her shoulder.

"Uh, no," Gail says moving her coffee and textbook to make room.

"Thanks, this place is packed. I'm Holly, by the way."

"Gail."

Gail's not sure why she's talking to this woman, but her mouth seems to speak of its own volition. She learns that Holly goes to UBC, but is in town for a summer program at the University of Toronto. Holly's a rambler, but it doesn't bug her. She loves the sound of the other woman's voice. After a few moments the brunette catches herself and gives Gail a shy smile.

"Sorry, I'll let you get back to your studies," Holly says taking out a genetics textbook. Definitely, a nerd, Gail thinks with a smile.

They both sit in companionable silence for a couple of hours. An alarm goes off on Holly's watch and with a rushed goodbye she's gone in a flash. Gail can't help the sinking feeling in her chest as she watches Holly go.

Though she'd deny it, Gail goes back to that café at the same time every day for a week hoping to see Holly again. On the seventh day, just as she's telling herself not to be a creepy stalker and to just go home, a familiar figure walks through the door. She tries to school her features and not stare, but she knows she looks like a grinning idiot. What's great though, is that Holly gives her the same smile when she spots her.

"Fancy meeting you here."

Gail tries to shrug, but when Holly eyes her (and the three empty coffee cups beside her) she knows she's caught, but then the corners of Holly's lips tick upward and she launches into a story like they're old friends who planned to meet up.

The next time they do plan it. And the next. Then the time after that they go to dinner. The time after that Gail kisses Holly outside the batting cages. They end up dating through the summer and it's the best three months of Gail's life. Those three words, so little yet so full of _everything _tumble out of Gail's mouth a week before Holly's due back at UBC. She'll never forget the smile on Holly's face or the kiss that followed, but six days later Holly boards a plane to Vancouver and they never speak again.

Gail rebounds easily, the way only a teenager can. She finds Nick, then loses Nick. She goes to college and the academy. Starts on the force, then deals with the blow that is Perik. Finds and loses Nick again, all with little thought about the brunette that energized her life for one glorious summer.

Well, until she and Marlo find the remains in the woods.

"I said you're not allowed down there."

When the brunette turns, Gail's breath hitches in her chest. Holly's smile takes her back to whispered promises and tangled sheets.

"I am. I need to get some samples."

Gail eyes her unsure if Holly recognizes her, but she plays along anyway. "Who are you?"

"The forensic pathologist."

"Oh," the blonde says taking a few steps forward. "You should have told me that before."

Holly smirks. "I thought it was obvious. Especially to someone who has seen me naked."

Gail's face turns a deep crimson. "And here I thought you didn't recognize me."

"Like that could ever happen."

They fall into an easy banter for the rest of the afternoon. It's not until Holly's done with the examination and ready to go that Gail invites her out for drinks. The spark between them is as undeniable as ever.

When they kiss again (outside the batting cages, naturally), Gail is pretty sure she might explode from happiness. "I can't believe this happening again."

Holly leans in to kiss her.

"Kinda like a fairytale."

/ / /

When she opens her eyes the worried face of her brother is staring back at her. Gail could have sworn she was staring at Holly a second ago. She tries to find her voice, but the blood in her mouth is too thick so she glares at him instead.

"She's glaring at me Price," he chuckles. "I told you she was gonna be okay."

Gail doesn't feel okay.

And she must not really be okay because Steve's focus keeps drifting from her face to her abdomen. He presses down harder on her wound, but the blonde can hardly feel it. Chloe's there, nervously prattling on beside her, but the voice she wants to hear is nowhere to be found.

The sky above her has turned gray, the sun almost completely gone. Her eyes are heavy.

"Hold on, Gail," Steve says with an urgency that she hasn't heard from him before. "The ambulance will be here any second."

She tries to lift her hand to sign Holly's name, but she can't seem to move anything. She feels a warm hand on her face before the world goes dark.

/ / /

Though she was expecting it, the suspension had been a blow, so Gail makes good on her plan to go to Europe.

The first few weeks were amazing. She ate and drank her way through breathtaking cities and soaked in the views. The problem was that she really wishes she had someone to soak it all in with her.

This trip would be much better with Nick. They'd broken up before she left, both knowing that trying to keep a relationship alive over separate continents and undercover missions wasn't very realistic, but he'd still be fun to have around. Hell, at this point she'd take any of the rookies over being alone for another day.

Then as if on cue a voice interrupts her thoughts.

"Mi scusi, penso di essere persa."

When Gail looks up the smile she sees makes her stop in her tracks. A beautiful brunette woman was looking at her, a map helplessly held in her hands.

After Gail recovers she asks, "Dove si sta tentando di andare?"

Behind her glasses the woman's eyes narrow in concentration, as if she was trying to parse out what she said.

"Where are you trying to go?" Gail tries in English. Relief floods the woman's face as she explains her destination.

Gail has no idea where this woman is trying to go, but desperate for human interaction she offers to help her find it.

The woman smiles in thanks, but folds her map up. "No thanks, it's probably just a boring tourist trap anyway. What I really could use is a drink. Want to join me?"

Gail eagerly accepts and follows Holly to the nearest bar. They talk all afternoon and into the evening. After dinner Holly convinces her to go dancing. They only make it through two songs before their bodies are pressed up against each other, lips crashing together. Not long after that they're stumbling back to Holly's room to get lost in each other.

When she wakes later that night (or early that morning) the moon has cast a bright glow across the ocean outside the window. She turns to look at the slumbering brunette next to her and can't help the smile that blossoms across her face.

"Don't look so smug."

"It wasn't smug," Gail defends. "It was happy."

Holly leans on an elbow and cups the blonde's face with her other hand. "Good. I'm happy too."

"Really?"

Holly leans in to kiss her.

It reminds her of a fairytale.

/ / /

The next time her eyes flutter open she's staring at shadows on the roof of an ambulance. The way the lights dance across the metal reminds her of moonlight on water.

Gail notices a firm pressure on her side. The paramedics must have packed and wrapped her wound. She rolls her head to the side to see Chloe's smile of relief. The other officer reaches over and grabs her hand.

"We're almost there, Gail."

Her limbs finally seem to be able to work and Gail's able to reach up and remove her oxygen mask.

"H-Holly," she croaks out.

Price's face scrunches up in confusion. "No, it's Chloe."

Gail rolls her eyes and hears a soft chuckle from behind her. It must be the paramedic. "I think she wants you to call Holly."

Chloe's eyes light up. "Oh, yeah, of course!"

Gail watches Chloe fish her phone out of her vest pocket and unlock it. "I – uh – I don't have her number."

If there was ever a moment where she wanted to hit Chloe Price this was it. Her own phone was probably still in her vest at the scene. A shrill beeping invaded her ears as her vision goes blurry. The next thing she knows the oxygen mask is placed back over her mouth and the paramedic is fussing over her.

"I'll get in touch with, Holly. I promise."

_You damn well better_, Gail thinks. _Or I'm so gonna haunt your ass_.

/ / /

After the day she had, the last thing Gail wants to do is be surrounded by cops so she decides to forgo her usual routine at the Penny for some unknown bar in a nicer part of the city she rarely frequents. She figures the chances of running into anyone she knew there were pretty much nonexistent.

She orders a beer, parks herself in a booth in the back and plasters on her best "don't fuck with me" face. Truth be told, it wasn't all cops she was avoiding, mostly just Nick and Andy who couldn't seem to stop making googly eyes at each other. The breakup with Nick had hurt, but it was Andy's betrayal that really stung and Gail was tired of dealing with all of it.

Scanning the bar, her eyes catch sight of a gorgeous brunette sipping a beer at the bar. Some guy was talking to her, which she was clearly not enjoying and he either couldn't take a hint or she was really bad and giving them. Gail didn't have that problem.

Feeling a rush of goodwill, Gail downs the rest of her drink and makes her way over to the bar. She slips between the brunette and the annoying guy and makes a face at the other woman to play along.

"Hey, sorry I'm late. Guess that means I owe you a drink."

When Gail hears the cough behind her, she throws her best menacing glare over her shoulder.

"Excuse me, Holly and I were having a conversation."

"Holly's not interested, buddy. Go away."

She catches Holly's smile before the other woman tries to cover it by taking a sip of her beer. Gail's hoping the silence means the creeper has finally taken the hint, but a second later a hand is on her shoulder pulling her backwards. Gail easily grabs his arm, twists it behind him, and pushes him up against the bar.

"You have three seconds to leave before I arrest you for assaulting a police officer." When she lets him go, he scampers away without glancing back.

"I think it's me who owes you a drink now."

Her eyes dart to Holly and she can feel the blush in her cheeks. "Wouldn't say no to that."

They spend the rest of the night talking and drinking more than they should. Gail learns that Holly is the department's new forensic pathologist. She tries to give Holly pointers on who to avoid and who's tolerable, but the list of who is tolerable consists only of her. Every time Holly smiles Gail feels all warm inside.

It takes them a while to fall together after that. When Gail doesn't catch the Robbie Robbins case they don't run into each other again until Christian goes missing. It takes Gail two weeks after that to invite Holly for coffee. The attraction is there instantly and the officer isn't quite sure what to do with it, so she inevitably acts awkward every time they see each other.

Then they finally catch a case together. Gail's already at the scene of the shooting when Holly rolls up. Gerald does a crap job of clearing the scene because out of nowhere a gunman bursts through the house, gun pointed at Holly. Out of instinct she dives toward the pathologist, knocking her to the ground. Gerald shouts into his radio and runs out the door after him.

She hears Holly chuckle and Gail finally notices the precarious position they're in, but she makes no move to lift herself off the doctor.

"You know, if you wanted on top of me all you had to do was ask."

She means it as a joke, but Gail doesn't laugh. "You should have told me that sooner."

That night, after their clothes have been torn off, Holly looks down at her with the most beautiful smile Gail's ever seen.

"I'll play the damsel in distress more often if this is what it gets me."

The officer rolls her eyes, but smiles. "So what am I your white knight now?"

"Yes, my very white knight."

Holly leans in to kiss her.

"Our very own fairytale."

/ / /

She feels nothing. It must be the drugs because her mind is so foggy she can't seem to form a coherent thought.

After a lot of struggling Gail's able to open her eyes, but just barely. Everything's blurry and distorted and her eyes are so heavy that she can barely open them beyond small slits.

She makes out the bulky form in the corner. From the white shirt and the posture she guesses it's Oliver. Next to him is another white blob with red hair she'd recognize anywhere. God, _her mother_ is here. Gail would groan if she had the energy to.

They're talking about something in worried tones. Her mother's voice gets louder and Gail can feel the wrath from her spot on the bed. A pressure on her hand moves her focus to the side of her where she's just able to make out the form of a person, but the details are lost.

Then a hand runs softly through her hair. It's so comforting that Gail forgets about everything else going on in the room.

"You're going to be okay, Honey."

That voice. Gail knows that voice. All of a sudden there's a tugging in her chest. It's not pleasant. The room erupts into shouts and she can feel her bed being lowered and cool metal against her skin.

She mostly feels the loss of the warm hand in hers.

/ / /

Holly's sitting at a desk in a morgue Gail doesn't recognize. She's so focused on whatever she's writing that she doesn't hear the phone the first time it rings. Doesn't notice the ping to indicate she has a voicemail. A moment later the second round of rings jolts her out of her stupor and she moves papers around until she finds it, not even glancing at the caller ID.

"Dr. Stewart," she says distractedly, eyes still focused on the computer in front of her.

"Holly, it's Oliver Shaw."

Gail's not sure how she can hear Oliver. Actually, she has no idea why Holly hasn't noticed her yet either, but instead of moving to announce herself, Gail stands transfixed on the scene unfolding before her. She watches as Holly's face drops, her work immediately forgotten.

"Please tell me she's alive."

"They just took her into surgery."

Holly asks for details as she stands to gather her things. She's out the door before Oliver even has a chance to finish the rundown.

/ / /

Gail's standing in the middle of the hospital waiting room. It's late, but all of her friends (along with most of Fifteen Division) are crowded around her. The already quiet room goes eerily silent when Holly bursts through the doors. Gail recognizes the dark sweater she was wearing a few moments ago in the morgue.

Traci is the first one to meet the pathologist. Holly's talking a mile a minute, asking a thousand questions no one has time to answer and Gail feels the sudden urge to run over and kiss her. Only she can't seem to move.

/ / /

Behind her, Oliver is doing his best to answer the onslaught of questions from her mother. What happened? Did you get the shooter? Was anyone else hurt? But Gail's focus is solely on the woman in front of her.

She's in her own hospital room looking on as Holly holds the hand of the real her, the _alive_ her. When Holly runs her hand through her hair, Gail swears she can feel it as well. She walks around the bed to get a better look at Holly's face. It's a sight Gail didn't think she'd ever see again and she's filled with relief as she gazes upon her now.

"You're going to be okay, Honey."

Gail almost believes it. She feels the pull in her chest the same time she starts seizing on the hospital bed. Her focus isn't on herself though. She stares at Holly trying to memorize every part of her.

Gail's really glad that ugly burnt orange sky isn't the last thing she sees.

Seeing Holly's face one last time?

That's kinda like a fairytale.

/ / /

The humming seems to surround her. It isn't a tune Gail recognizes, but the sound is welcome all the same.

She's afraid to open her eyes, afraid of what she'll find when she does. For now she's content to stay in the bubble of peace brought on by the calming sound of the hum.

There's a warm hand on her face, a thumb rubbing soft comforting circles on her cheek. When the humming stops, Gail forces herself to open her eyes.

What she sees is the most welcome thing she's ever seen in her life.

"If you scare me like that again I'm going to punch you in the face."

The chuckle that escapes her lips hurts her chest, but she doesn't care. The moment their eyes lock relieved tears start to stream down Holly's face. Gail wishes she could reach out to stop them. She tries to speak, but her throat is too dry. She wants to say everything that's been weighing on her mind.

_I love you._

_I miss you._

Instead all she can do is stare right back at Holly hoping to convey everything she's feeling with a look. Holly seems to understand as she leans down to place a soft lingering kiss on her forehead.

"If getting shot was all it took to get you back here I would have done it a lot sooner," she croaks when she finally finds her voice.

Holly lets out a mix of a sigh and laugh. "Honey, all you ever had to do was ask."

What a novel concept. Gail realizes she never actually uttered those words to the pathologist and would kick herself if she could.

Holly's hand returns to Gail's face and she leans into it.

"I love you, Gail."

"I love you, too," she says, voice thick. The drugs must have kicked in again because her eyes were getting heavy. "We're idiots."

"Yes we are," Holly adds with a laugh. "We're not exactly a fairytale are we?"

Gail gives her the biggest smile she can muster. "Nope. Still kinda beautiful though."


End file.
